Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Travesty of Book Deserts

It’s a fact that will strike fear into the heart of anyavid reader:There are places in the United States — one of the
wealthiest nations on the planet — that have no real access to books, even for
students. They're called book deserts.

Concentrated in inner cities but sometimes afflicting rural
areas as well, these are communities with no bookstores, few or not-often-open
public libraries, and a dearth of school libraries.

It's a sad truth that many public schools no longer have
libraries. According to one teacher in Los Angeles,83 percent of L.A. middle
schools don’t have a librarian and aren’t allowed to keep the library open with
volunteers. (The schools only have 98 librarians for 1,309 schools!) Most
charter schools don’t have libraries due to funding.

Obviously, that's not the only part of the country that has issues connecting people to places with books. TheUnite for Literacy's Book Desert maps projectuses data about book availability to illustrate where the need for books or electronic access to books is greatest.READ MORE !